Lock, stock and two smoking barrels
Lock, stock and two smoking barrels is a British crime film, written and directed by Guy Ritchie, an English film maker. This film was made on approximately £875,000 ($1,350,000), this film introduced the actors Jason Stratham and Vinnie Jones, who are both now well-known English actors.
Camera: at the beginning of the trailer there are a lot of medium shots and close ups, for example when they are introducing the characters, (bacon, eddy, fat man, soap) there is a small part of their role and then a close up of their face. This gives the audience the chance to connect with the character and know what they look like, the close up is also a still shot of the character as it pauses and the non-diegetic voice over gives the audience its name. This short pause and voice over gives the audience the chance to know them.
There is also a lot of close ups of the main subject in the film- money, in the trailer at points, 17 secs, 20 secs and 21 secs, there is an extreme close up of the money within seconds of each other. This shows the audience that the film is based around money. Close up shots are used throughout the trailer, an effective close up is at 30-35 seconds in the trailer, whilst the character seems to be playing poker. A close up of each character in that scene is shown, of their face only. These close ups allow the audience to see their face expressions in a tense moment, but it also helps build tension, as they don’t know what will happen next, as they can’t see what else is happening around.
When the group of men are together they are always shown in a medium shot, (29, 37, 39, 50, seconds for example) as they are a group, it shows that they are equal as a group.
Throughout the trailer males are always shown in a low angle shot, they are portrayed as much more dominant and superior to the audience, for example at 44 seconds, there is a very angry looking male, and he is shown in a low angle, this shows that he is more dominant. Also when a man jumps out of the window with weapons, a low angle is shown, emphasising that he is more powerful, also the weapons help emphasis this too. However when Jason Stratham (bacon) is shown with a card stuck to his head, with two pieces of burning paper out of his ears, the is a slightly higher angle because he looks rather ridiculous, and for a moment the audience seems to be more superior and in control.
In the trailer, tracking is used, this gives the viewer the illusion that they are travelling with the narrative. Panning is also used, which keeps the viewer interested because they will be forced to follow.
At the beginning of the trailer, the characters are being introduced; text appears on the screen giving the audience their name in the film. The text is in red, red can connote sacrifice, which links with the film because each character is sacrificing their money. The character “soap” says “I can afford it as long as I see it again”, he is sacrificing his money in this film. There for the colour red of their name connotes their sacrifice.
At the beginning of the trailer the lighting is quite bright, with non-diegetic music, which is quite happy music that is quite quick. This could be the equilibrium because everything seems to be fine, however the lighting soon becomes a lot darker, a fill light is used at 19 seconds, when they are looking at the money, their faces are shown with light but it is darker around them. Also the male’s faces whilst there is a shot of their face is quite dark, this could mean that they have a dark secretive side to them. Low key lighting is used for their faces, which create the secretive effect.
The characters facial expressions help show the feelings of the characters, their body language tends to be quite overconfident. Their costumes are very dark shades, like black and grey, these both have negative connotations, grey has connotations of dull and boring, and black has connotations of evil and power. So this could mean that the gang may have a lot of power.
Most of the sound in the trailer is non-diegetic, there is a voice over that is a very English, maybe east end accent, this emphasises and high lights the fact it is a British film. The music is also non-diegetic, at first the music is happy and quite upbeat, and this could mean that everything at the beginning is reasonable; however it quickly changes to a very fast, daring music sound. This links with what is happening because each member is giving their money away, which can be quite daring and sacrificial.
The shots in this trailer show the equilibrium and disequilibrium that occurs, this allows the audience to see how the events occurred, making it easier to understand. As there doesn’t seem to be a new equilibrium this gives the audience the incentive to want to watch it because they don’t know how it is going to end.
Males are represented as quite powerful and dominant in this trailer, due to the low angles on the males that appear on their own. This could show that they are more dominant and powerful when they are shown on their own and more independent. There aren’t many shots of females but when there is, it seems they are shown as sex objects, at 1.04, we are show the back of a woman and a male character looks and turns away, showing that they are not very important and don’t matter.
This genre of a British gangster/crime carries the codes and conventions of being quite violent, with weapons and fighting, that money is normally involved and theft. Also loyalty means a lot to the gangster, they also usually take place in a big city, rather than in little alleyways, things are out in the open. This film follows a lot of these codes and conventions that typically appear in British gangster films, we see that they are in the open at the beginning of the trailer whilst he is selling things in the street, and also there is a lot of violence and weapons in this film which it very typical of this genre. The film is mainly about money, this shows that it is following the codes and conventions because a lot of British gangster and crime films use money as the main problem in a film.
The character “eddy” seems to be the main protagonist in the trailer because he is shown the most, he is represented as one of the gang members who go wrong and gets them into trouble. He is the trusted one but goes wrong and is forced with the responsibility to right his wrongs; this is very typical of a British gangster/ crime movie.
This film is aimed at mainly males because it seems to be a male dominating film, also because it has props that would appeal to male for example weapons and also there is fighting which is widely popular among males. Aimed at males aged around 18-45+ because it has an age certificate of 18 due to the violence in the film, which would appeal to an older audience. This could appeal to a C2DE socio economic group because the setting seems to be quite run down, it seems very common, also the jobs the characters have and their accents. It isn’t a posh accent which would appeal more to ABC1 class.
